would lead this "island" to be regarded as Elysium, while in Arthur's case it came to be called Avalon either because a local lord of Elysium was named Avallo, or because magic trees with apples (avall, "apple-tree"), like those of the Irish Elysium, were supposed to grow there. Glastonbury as a síd Elysium is supported by another early Arthur tradition; and one form of this had been transferred to Italy by the Normans, for Gervase of Tilbury speaks of a groom finding himself in a castle on Etna, wherein Arthur lay in bed, suffering from Mordred's wounds, which broke out afresh each year.30 More usually, however, the legend is that of Arthur and his knights waiting, like Fionn, in an enchanted sleep within a hill for the time when their services will be required, this story being attached to the Eildon Hills and other places.31
Welsh literature shows that at a period contemporary with Geoffrey, and in manuscripts perhaps going back to an earlier period, there was an Arthurian tradition in Wales which differed considerably from that of the historian and was much fuller. Arthur became a figure to whom floating myths and traditions might be attached and, like Fionn, he was a slayer of witches, monsters, and serpents, so that in the Life of St, Carannog a huge reptile which devastated the land was hunted and destroyed by him. It is certain that, before the great French poems of the Arthurian cycle were written, Arthur was popular both in Britain and in Brittany.32
The outburst of Arthurian romance proper, that of the Anglo-Norman writers, belongs to the end of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth century, opening with the Lais of Marie de France and the Tristan, Erec, Chevalier de la Charette, and Conte del Graal of Chrestien de Troyes. Whence was its subject-matter drawn? Some hold that beyond the scanty facts related of the historic Arthur, all was taken from Armorican sources, popularized by conteurs there. These traditions, according to Zimmer, were originally Welsh, but were brought to Armorica by immigrants from
